Dell PowerEdge R-Series Reviews

We use this solution for general computing and for ESX hosts for our virtual environment. 

We are a partner who sells PowerEdge to many different customers, and we also use it in our own environment. The solution can be customized based on a customer's needs and allows us to build whatever we need in our own environment at that particular moment.

The system management capabilities of PowerEdge helped increase stack productivity. The solution's accelerated GPUs helped support demanding workloads for some of our customer's environments. PowerEdge helped to reduce data processing time in our company which has made us work faster. 

iDRAC is the most valuable feature because of the ease of use and management, and everything that it provides is super useful. The security features that PowerEdge provides, including firmware threat detection is good.

We do not currently use this solution's CloudIQ functionality for predictive analytics but we would like to use it in the future.

I have used this solution for five years. 

This is a stable solution. 

This solution is scalable. The way this solution is able to scale is impressive. Depending on how you build your PowerEdge server, it can serve the lowest end of customers up to the highest, depending on what their needs are. Whatever a customer is trying to accomplish, can usually be customized for their environment.

The quality of support for this solution varies. Sometimes you get agents who are amazing and other times you get agents who take a long time to resolve your query. I would rate support for this solution a six and a half out of ten. 

The initial setup is straightforward. Deployment took one to two hours.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten. 

We use this solution for our SAP system to catalogue our sales, sales products and pricing. We also use this solution for all Microsoft applications. 

The patches that are often released for this solution help us stay on top of our game, which is essential as we provide solutions to the government.

This solution keeps us up and running and reduces downtime. PowerEdge has helped us to reduce data processing time. The PowerEdge systems management frameworks have enabled us to progress towards full automation. 

The automatic updates provided in the system have been the most valuable. The notifications that get sent out help us keep on top of making sure security patches are updated weekly.

The iDRAC commentary embedded in this solution allows our IT department to detect problems whenever and wherever they arise. They are then able to resolve these problems from a remote location 80% of the time.

This solution does everything we need to do. 

I have been using this solution for two years. 

This is a stable solution. 

This is a scalable solution. We have 35 employees who focus primarily on sales. 

The technical support for this solution is good. 

Positive

The initial setup is straightforward. The solution's deployment team that assisted are on top of their game. They are easy to contact and set it up fairly quickly.

The pricing for this solution is competitive compared to others on the market.

Our IT department have not had any complaints using this solution and have preferred its performance compared to what they used to use.

I would rate this solution a ten out of ten. 

This solution is very easy to use. 

For every option, there is documentation with at least two lines of explanation.

You are provided with excellent instructions. 

They need to improve the support, as they are not very responsive, and they don't get back to you right away.

We have been working with Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Servers for several years. 

It's a stable solution and we plan to continue using it.

Dell EMC PowerEdge is not very scalable. This is an area that can improve.

We have 389 users in our organization.

The critical issue is when you send them an email, you will not get a reply for two or three days.

They are happy to fix your issues but they are not very responsive.

We started when we had Windows 7 in 2012, and have now upgraded to Dell EMC.

The initial setup is straightforward. 

It took two days to complete the installation.

We have one person to maintain it.

We had help from an integrator during our implementation. We have been using these integrators for five years.

It's a one-time licensing fee for the device and we pay a quota per year for the support.

We deploy both on-premises and on the cloud, but at this time we are using on-premise only because we have to get additional access to the cloud.

This is a good product. I would recommend it for small to mid-size companies, but not for large companies who manage several computers. The response time for their support could be faster.

I would rate this solution a six out of ten.

I use the solution to help me with battery and memory DIMM errors.

The remote management control is a valuable feature. There is no need to connect the monitor, keyboard, or mouse. We can install our operating system and whatever else we wish. Thanks to the enterprise license which enables remote connectivity there is no need to connect. This allows us to make use as we see fit, such as that involving the operating system installation and, occasionally, the host machine, in which case we can connect to the console remotely. This allows us to do remote troubleshooting, which is a nice feature. 

When it comes to battery and memory DIMM errors, it seems there is a bug. Also, the number of disks should be expandable. Many medium and large companies are using cloud-based rack servers. There should be a greater amount of CPU, memory, and hard disks. As the disks and memory should be expandable, I would highlight scalability as an issue.

I am currently using Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Servers and have been doing so over the course of the past 12 months. 

I feel Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Servers to be reliable solutions for rack only because this rack solutions is not applicable to other cases. It is reliable, based on the rack solution. 

When it comes to the rack server, the number of disks lack scalability.

Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Servers' remote support is quite good. Many a times I have opened a case and received from them a prompt response and solution.

The initial setup is so easy. One just need establish a remote connection with the network console, allowing the applications database to be installed as desired. 

The licensing comes with a warranty.

If I wish to use the remote console, I can access it so that I may obtain the enterprise license on the server. Once two or three years have elapsed, or subsequent to getting the warranty, there is no need to get the license. 

The cost goes up when taking into account the enterprise-level license.

I evaluated Blade in addition to the solution. 

The reason we use on-premises and not cloud is because we are talking about a bank. The financial data is not published outside.

Before I could recommend implementing the solution, I wish to describe a scenario. As mentioned, in terms of the rack server I can speak positively. However, were I to compare Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Servers to other solutions, such as Blade, it wouldn't be helpful for this rack server only, as we are merely talking about CPU, RAM and some disks. 

Owing to the scalability issue, I rate Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Servers as a nine out of ten. 

Virtual Environment and performance enhancements for SQL applications and for future VDI implementations.

Performance has been observed once servers have been operational and power consumption has been reduced as well due to the new technology.

The solution has always had very good performance.

The availability/scalability is excellent.

Their technical support is always helpful. They have a very good support timeline that lasts not just a year or two, but even five years down the line. It's a long-term arrangement.

The solution is highly scalable, with a two-socket server, CPU support, and the M.E.N SST. 

It can support VDI.

You can combine these servers. Therefore, not only do they work with virtual environments, you can have them as a Data Analytics server. They can handle a lot of heavy processes. They are one of the main big servers that can handle a lot of things. For example, I'm replacing four servers with three servers, which means I can also reduce the licenses. Instead of buying two licenses, you're buying one license. The lines are reduced to half, and you have a few open managed application that will tell you the health of the server. 

The content and insights with Dell are great. Whenever something happens to your server and you have the support, they will give you a notification. Whether it's CPU or RAM or the power supply, whatever the issue, they will tell you. You always have a proactive notification on all the servers.

Security and BIOS are very good. Previously, BIOS was just a plus for the team to have on the server. Now, BIOS is more into Cyber Security and has the intelligence to recognize what is being loaded before going to the main OS. There's artificial intelligence integrated into these servers and the insights are one of the main reasons that they'll provide you with a good service, and offer you some visibility on the server. You feel safe. The server won't let you down. With the notifications, you can always handle things before they become a bigger problem. 

The company needs to invest in more marketing exposure. Users need to know that Dell servers compete with HP Servers. in the region, the Middle East, many more companies work with HP. They could change this.

The solution could still use some more analytics.

It would be helpful if we had the power of an open managed application. It should be more hands-on in terms of how are you going to manage your server. In order to do that, you need more visibility into the health of the server itself.

I've been dealing with this solution for around a year. I used to have HP servers, as well, however, now I'm working with Dell again.

The solution is extremely scalable, and it's easy to do so as it has a two-socket server and CPU support, etc. It offers quite high performance for easy scaling down the road.

You don't just buy a server for one service. You buy a server to take advantage of several services in your environment, and so, it helps that it can scale.

I've personally never worked with technical support directly, however, it is my understanding that technical support is excellent. They offer long timelines, so you don't just have technical support for, for example, the first year or two. They continue to work with you even years down the line. They're very fast and responsive and their head in Lebanon is very good. 

Support is one of the main reasons we considered as well, as we know that if we have any critical issues, we won't have problems getting the answers we need. We get the answers we require either the same day or 24 hours. It's great.

We did use a different solution, HP, and now we are returning to Dell. Part of what played a major factor is the support for AMD CPU's. Since Dell EMC supports the AMD, there also were internal considerations as well to take them on.

HP is one of the main competitors in the Middle East. They compete head-to-head with Dell EMC also, and HP servers have some things that are better than Dell EMC. Dell has older technology. They're catching up, however, with artificial intelligence, analytics, and reporting, they're catching up.

They are pretty close in style and substance. Therefore, whichever gives me a better price will be the one I choose.

The initial setup was very, very easy. 

There's nothing to work with on the server itself. 

You just handle the configuration, and you do some EFI configuration. In the last stage, you're going to install the operating system so that it is a fast service. It depends on the disks you put in. At the server level, so it doesn't have that much configuration. It's just installing Windows and any operating system. Then you build over that.

Except for the Bios updates and the drivers and the compatibility issues, you don't have any problem with compatibility.

There are certain components on other solutions that I need to check with Dell. Dell was very good before and always is in the performance, availability and support. That said, our region in Lebanon, had some problems with the distributors and the people who are licensed to sell Dell products. It's been about five years now, and it's now official that everybody can partner again with Dell. You don't have to be an experienced partner, per se. 

Before, it was being controlled by one partner. Nobody is able to bring in Dell, and this partner had control for all the prices of all the support and everything. However, after merging with EMC and after having so many partners, its become more exposed to the market. Many partners that were struggling to sell Dell EMC servers and storage, as well as laptops and everything, are able to do so. 

This is the main reason why we have returned to Dell. We know about them. They offer very good servers and they are one of the leaders in the market. Dell and HP are leaders now in the servers. For this season, we reconsidered having their Rack Servers. This is the only reason we're going now to Dell servers. 

With Dell, if a company is considering their work environments and they're considering Data Analytics and Big Data, etc., yes, why not to go for the Dell server. They have an extremely scalable infrastructure designed for Big Data and they have the processes and ERP system that needs a lot of power. The Rack Servers, the PowerUp servers, are very good. They are recommended by many people worldwide.

I'd recommend organizations consider these servers. Dell also has a full portfolio of products that work together in harmony. Whatever you need, Dell likely has a solution for you.

Overall, I would rate the solution nine out of ten.

We primarily used the solution for the servers. It's a node among many in a multiprocessor, supercomputer environment. It's a very verified application. The customer uses a lesser file system, which means that one file system is shared among the entire installation. You're not going to see that very often in your career unless you're in that business. It's a multi-node, high-performance computing file system. It's Linux based.

It fit the requirements of the client, that's really all that it was for us. It could deliver the IOPS and the local storage that was required. It could have been anybody else, Lenovo, IBM, HP, etc. We were Dell's number one reseller in Canada and probably worldwide. We got very favorable terms and that also helped with the decision.

The only way you could improve it is, for the purpose of HPC installations, is IOPS and the only way to improve it is to get a more powerful machine to deliver more IOPS. Basically, you need more CPUs and you need more RAM and you need a faster backbone. We were running on 100 gigabits Infiniband.

Until they get new technology and density, it would be nice to see four nodes in a one-year package instead of a three-year package.

I'm recently retired, however, I did work with the solution on one of my last projects which lasted a few months.

The solution delivers what it promises. You look at the specs and it delivers them. If it doesn't deliver you move onto another model.

There's really nothing special about it, and Dell doesn't make servers that are any better than anybody else's. The prime reason we chose it is that it delivers what it promises to deliver in terms of IOPS and the price right for us because when you're a platinum level reseller for a server company, they will give you very favorable terms especially in this time of a pandemic, hardware sales are down across the board for the entire industry.

It's very scalable. That's the whole idea. When you want to add more computation power to the platform you just throw in another act of compute nodes and storage.

I've never used technical support. Out-of-the-box it works, and if it doesn't, then the client deals with it directly. The equipment is sold to them so they own the serial numbers and they own the service contracts, so if anything went wrong during the installation the client would take care of them, not us.

We've worked with HP, Cisco, Lenovo, and IBM in the past. We always choose the solution that makes the most sense for our clients.

We handed over the complete installation in September. We started in August. It takes time. You're coming into an empty room. You have to have power, you need the AC for the equipment there that has to be moved out. It takes time. The racks were pre-populated in Toronto and shipped to Montreal, and then in Montreal, they were set up and powered. We had liquid cooling and radiators on the rear of the cabinet for the heat.

We've done many of these installations, and it's pretty routine. There's nothing complex about it. The complexity is mostly that there are so many key parts in terms of getting it delivered on-site. There are so many parts from so many different vendors and there are penalties if you don't deliver on time. Nobody wants to pay penalties.

I didn't deal with the pricing, and therefore don't know the exact costs. 

However, they would compete with pricing on the market. Even if HP made an equivalent platform, and they do, we wouldn't get good terms. They're all pretty well in the ballpark range in cost and the variation. The list price might be 10%. They know what the competition is doing so they don't want to price themselves, the values, off the list of potential. If I'm looking at servers that deliver so much IOPS and they price themselves out, HP knows what Dell is doing and Dell knows what HP is doing.

My company partners with Dell.

I'm recently retired, however, I did most of the infrastructure, backup storage, and high-performance computing. I was in pre-sales. I was a solution architect. Therefore, I'm not an end-user.

We only used Dell for the servers. We used Seagate for storage. They have hard drives. They've been in the hard drive business for 40 years.

My biggest piece of advice for those considering the solution is to make sure they are delivered on time. When clients are spending $50 million for an installation and you say it's going to be ready September 15th, it better be ready September 15th. One of the main reasons stuff's not ready is because parts are missing. That means you can't deliver a complete solution. If you're missing a box of spare hard drives, they're just spares, they're not preventing the installation, however, they're missing, and therefore you haven't delivered the product.

Overall, I'd rate the product ten out of ten.

All of my server's requirements are currently using the Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Servers.

There are certain aspects, features, and functionality on the motherboard that need improvement. 

If they had some software components that would have helped because I don't like creating electronic waste. We don't like upgrading for the sake of upgrading.

With that process, we tend to lose the newer features which would have come in during that time.

If they could have done something during that time where the new features could have been included, or improved upon the existing ones then it would have been brilliant.

In the next release, I would like to see some means by which they could improve the functionality on the motherboard. It would be a very large help and increase the life of these products.

I have been using Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Servers for 14 to 15 years.

We are using the latest version purchased from HP.

It's a very stable solution. 

We have many servers still running with this solution because our new one has not yet been commissioned. 

We have the exchange server, ERP that is running on it, file sense servers, and the security server is running.

We plan to continue using this solution in the future.

Dell EMC PowerEdge Rack Servers is scalable.

We have 160 users in our organization.

Technical support has been brilliant. 

They have supported us for several years, but it's now out of support because we are currently implementing a hardware refresh.

The initial setup is straightforward.

The deployment time varies depending on the application being deployed. For example, the exchange took me a couple of days to get it up and running, and on a straightforward file sense server, it was less than three hours to get it up and running.

The security server also took a couple of hours to get it up and running.

We have four members to deploy and maintain this solution. They are made up of engineers, managers, and admins.

It's not a very expensive solution.

We were in a scenario of having every application running on physical servers.

We are now moving to an in-house virtual environment. We are using VMware so that one server can do a multitude of jobs at the same time. Hence the hardware refresh.

We are moving towards virtual experiences, using VMware.

This solution has absolutely fulfilled our needs well.

We are still running, this solution, we are upgrading only because of the features and abilities that it doesn't have. It's run now for 14 to 15 years.

It's a brilliant product.

I would recommend this solution to others looking into using this solution.

I would rate this solution a nine out of ten.

We are a solution provider and this is one of the storage products that we implement for our clients.

The most valuable features are remote management and iDRAC. Manageability is definitely one of the good points for Dell servers.

This is a quality product that can be customized for our clients.

The design, in terms of power efficiency, can be improved.

Improvements should be made in terms of field expandability. Scalability, in general, has room for improvement.

Support for virtualization support can be better.

I have been working with Dell Rack Servers for about 15 years, since 2004.

The Dell PowerEdge Rack Servers are definitely stable. Once we start one, we don't shut them down. The run for three, four, or five years at a time, and the performance does not decrease.

It is easy to scale, although when the server is built, you need to include options for future expandability. In cases where we create room in advance, it is easy. Otherwise, there can be some difficulty.

The local support in Dhaka is very good and we are happy with it.

I have worked with a variety of Dell PowerEdge models including 1850, 2850, 2900, 2950, 5710, 720, and 740.

The initial setup is very easy, as is the management. The time required for deployment depends on the environment and requirements. For example, it will differ based on whether it is a cluster deployment versus a VM implementation.

We also work with similar servers from HPE and Cisco. Many of the features and capabilities are the same. The suitability of one product over another depends on the specific requirements.

In summary, this is a good product and I have had a good experience with it. 

I would rate this solution a ten out of ten.